I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the terms of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996) annexed to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.
Ireland was privileged to hold the Presidency of the European Union at a time when significant progress was achieved in two important areas of disarmament. I refer to the adoption and opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on the one hand and a range of activities which culminated in the UN General Assembly's call for an international agreement to ban anti-personnel landmines on the other. As Presidency, Ireland saw to it that the European Union as such as well as individual members were instrumental in a practical way, with others, in securing these notable advances.
I am very pleased to move two motions today, one directly related to the CTBT and one related to a measure whose adoption indirectly gave impetus to the move towards a total ban on anti-personnel landmines.
By adopting the CTBT with a resounding vote before the close of the 50th session of the UN General Assembly last September, the international community secured at last, a legal instrument which bans all nuclear weapon test explosions and all other nuclear weapon test time. The question of halting nuclear testing had long been a major preoccupation of the General Assembly. In 1993 it had put aside earlier differences and unanimously mandated the Conference on Disarmament to negotiate a multilateral and verifiable nuclear test ban treaty. Following the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, it had set 1996 as the deadline for the adoption of a treaty.
Two days before Ireland assumed the EU Presidency, the 1996 spring session of the Conference of Disarmament concluded without formally adopting a treaty, thus jeopardising the aim of opening the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for signature in late September at the start of the 51st session of the General Assembly. Ireland immediately signalled its readiness, as Presidency, to take any action which partners deemed appropriate for the realisation of an objective to which the European Union, successive Governments and all political parties in Dáil Éireann attached the highest priority. During the brief summer session of the conference, the Presidency issued two Declarations on behalf of the Union and Associated States, 30 countries in all, urging acceptance of the draft treaty then on the table and seeking to impart to the proceedings in Geneva the sense of urgency to conclude which was felt by the international community.
When the draft treaty was vetoed by India in late August, Australia, a CD member from the Asia Pacific in which region all five nuclear weapons states had at some point conducted a nuclear test, assumed the onerous responsibility of leading the drive to secure the timely adoption of the treaty by the General Assembly. Ireland, as EU Presidency, worked closely with Australia and others in orchestrating demarches in African, Asian and Latin American capitals, some 100 countries in all, in a period of barely two weeks, to convey the unequivocal support of the European Union for the draft treaty and to invite support and co-sponsorship. It was imperative that the window of opportunity to end nuclear testing for all time should on no account slip away. Ultimately, a total of 126 states co-sponsored the draft Resolution whereby the General Assembly, on 10 September, adopted the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by an overwhelmingly positive vote: 158 in favour, three against — Bhutan, India and Libya — and five abstentions — Cuba, Lebanon, Mauritius, Tanzania and Syria. The depth and breadth of the positive vote showed the strength of international feeling against nuclear testing and the desire of the vast majority of states to see a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in place.
The Tánaiste was among the first group of Heads of State and Government and Foreign Ministers who signed the treaty at United Nations headquarters in New York on the day it was opened for signature, 24 September 1996. To date, 141 countries have signed the treaty. The preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, CTBTO, which will be based in Vienna and will monitor implementation of the treaty, has begun its work with a view to ensuring that the verification regime will be capable of meeting the requirements of the treaty at entry into force.
In authorising the Tánaiste to sign the treaty, subject to ratification, on behalf of Ireland, the Government on 18 September also agreed to participation by Ireland in the preparatory commission for the CTBTO subject to approval by Dáil Éireann which is not at this time called upon to approve the treaty, this will arise prior to ratification.
In essence, the treaty is a non-discriminatory agreement which will prohibit any nuclear weapon test explosion and any other nuclear explosion thereby constraining the development of nuclear weapons; through its preamble, it places the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in the context of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament initiatives; it provides for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, CTBTO, to be established in Vienna on entry into force following advance work by a preparatory commission; it establishes the Conference of State Parties and an Executive Council comprising 51 members drawn from six regional groups to direct the work of the CTBTO; it establishes a global non-discriminatory verification regime comprising an international monitoring system, IMS, with seismic, radionuclide and infrasound monitoring stations together with an on-site inspection regime designed to ensure effective verification while preventing excessive intrusion on the one hand and abuse on the other; it will enter into force 180 days after the date of deposit of the instruments of ratification of 44 named countries but in no case earlier than two years after its opening for signature.
The listing of 44 countries means that entry into force requires the participation of all nuclear capable countries, including all those which have tested nuclear weapons. India's opposition to the adoption of the treaty and its declared intention not to sign or ratify it means that a special waiver provision is likely to be invoked in the event that the treaty has not entered into force three years after its opening for signature.
Notwithstanding uncertainties surrounding its entry into force, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is already invaluable in that it establishes a new international norm against all nuclear testing. It represents one of the most sought after nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament measures in the history of the United Nations. While certainly not the end of the process of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, its adoption was the essential next step. It behoves Ireland as a long time advocate of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to lose no time before contributing to the preparatory commission which will lay the foundation for implementing the treaty. In this spirit, I commend the motion to the House.
Notice taken that 20 Members were not present; House counted and 20 Members being present,